Obama on Bin Laden’s burial: Respectful treatment of remains is something that makes us different

posted at 6:01 pm on May 5, 2011 by Allahpundit

That’s super, but it’s also a dodge. Bin Laden wasn’t given a dignified burial replete with Islamic rituals so that Americans could high-five each other over their moral superiority to Al Qaeda. The reason he got better than he deserved aboard the carrier is that O and his team aren’t sure how wide the backlash would be in the Middle East if OBL’s remains were desecrated. Jihadis and their Islamist enablers would be outraged, but their outrage and calls for revenge were already priced into the decision to kill him. The real fear was that the humiliation of a devout Muslim by non-Muslims would lead to a surge in anti-Americanism in the region at a precarious moment in the Arab Spring. That would mean more jihadist recruits, which in turns would mean more threats against America. After eight years of Bin Laden’s crew killing Shiites in Baghdad and then Sunnis in Anbar province, one would think he’s sufficiently reviled in the Muslim world that denying him Islamic rituals before burial would post a minor risk of a backlash, but evidently it wasn’t minor enough. Too bad Steve Kroft didn’t press him on that.

It’s also too bad that he didn’t ask which “experts in Islamic law and ritual” the White House consulted with before deciding that burial at sea was okay, because plenty of top clerics seem to disagree. But then that just takes us back to the previous point: Obama knows full well that Bin Laden, for all his crimes and cretinism, is still a figure that holds appeal for some small but not insignificant percentage of Muslims. The U.S. was going to be demagogued by his acolytes no matter what it did and where it buried him, which explains why some sympathizers have already taken to calling the Arabian Sea … “Martyrs’ Sea.” The White House couldn’t win with them, no matter what it did, so it tried to lose as little as possible. Mission accomplished, I guess.

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But I think the quickness of it was not well thought out. There needed to be independent witnesses. I don’t know who, maybe Imams or something, keep them in custody until the news broke… what another twelve hours?

It is very odd that they were in such a hurry to dump him.

I don’t think there is any conspiracy thing happening but there is little to say to counter the people who do now.

It’s also too bad that he didn’t ask which “experts in Islamic law and ritual” the White House consulted with before deciding that burial at sea was okay, because plenty of top clerics seem to disagree.

What makes you think that GW Bush didn’t approve the plan for burial at sea if UBL was ever caught?

Trust me – there was a plan all along for what to do (a) if he was captured alive or (b) killed on the battlefield.

Such a plan had to be drafted – because since we’ve been in Afghanistan – there has always been the possibility that one of our soldiers would “get him” – even if by accident.

The body of UBL was WAAAY too important to leave it’s disposition to “hasty” thinking and chance.

There was a plan – not saying that Obama used it in this case – but I think we need to keep our powder dry.

Bush could come out any day and say … “Well that’s what WE decided to do!”

Here’s hoping one of the boys on the “wash crew” had the presence of mind to save just one piece of bacon from breakfast, maybe in his pocket for later, then maybe decide he’s not hungry and needs a place to roll it up tight & hide it.

You don’t have to give the goat molester his blood-thirsty cult’s version of last rites either. You just don’t urinate, deficate, or mutilate the body before you send it to its ice cold grave to be devoured by the sea’s version of roaches and other vermin.

You don’t have to give the goat molester his blood-thirsty cult’s version of last rites either. You just don’t urinate, deficate, or mutilate the body before you send it to its ice cold grave to be devoured by the sea’s version of roaches and other vermin.

TQM38a on May 5, 2011 at 7:45 PM

There’s a difference between treating a body with respect and BRAGGING about it to the media and and thereby prostrating yourself in front of your enemies.

For what it’s worth, I don’t see it as dignified. I would have rather we let them stew about his location and condition for a few years like they did us with SSG Matt Maupin. But I guess we can’t have everything we want.

This whole charade-a respectful Muslim burial, obfuscating about killing an unarmed Bin Laden, not showing the death pictures-is all about kissing Muslim tush.

There is a second and third element involved in not showing the death pictures-a combination of nannyism and elitism.Just as it’s “not proper” for to serve salt or fattening foods in restaurants or drive gas guzzling SUVS (unless you’re a rich liberal) it’s “not proper” for “commoners” to gloat over pictures of a stone cold Bin Laden. But, of course, if you’re a rich and influential liberal, you not only don’t have the pay the taxes every else pays but you get to see pictures nobody else can view.

Burial at sea = no site for jihadis to visit
Prompt burial = respecting Islamic belief system

Regardless of how bad/evil OBL was, he’s dead now, so bury him respecting his religious beliefs, he’s in God’s/Allah’s hands now, so justice will be done and there is no need for us to do anything other than do things respectfully…think of this way, we aren’t paying OBL respect, we’re paying all people respect by letting them know that no matter what we’re committed to doing the “right” thing, even if you’re OBL.

Slightly off-topic; who gives a crap if we killed OBL ‘legally’ or morally? This guy needed to die ASAP, no need to justify it, the only morons that need further justification to ‘kill on sight’ are people that no one would listen to anyway because they’re nuts. Alan Dershowitz can suck a c**k with starting the playing this game of questioning the legitimacy of the killing. If I were the CinC, I would have stepped up and taken full responsibility for the killing, and then given the press *zero* details other than the fact that OBL was dead and gone.

A long, long time ago
I can still remember
Watching dust & rubble fly
And I knew if we had a chance
We could make knock your turban askance
And maybe we’d be happy for a while

But Mr. Bush could not deliver
And next September? Well it slithered
Nearer every moment
I couldn’t stand to wait

Well, I’m pretty sure i didn’t cry
When I heard about your widowed brides
But boy was I touched down deep inside
The day Osama died

Bye, bye Mr. Arabian guy,
Put a lead round thru your head mound
And we kissed you goodbye
Enjoy the heat down there in “Paradise”
Singing “This was not a good place to hide.”
No “This was not a good place to hide.”

We know more about the burial than we do about the raid. The story hasn’t changed one word on the burial but we’ve been told 50 different versions of how the pos was killed. It wasn’t actually in accordance with Muslim tradition, either. Don’t really care if the photos are ever released, but now I’m not sure it was actually him or a body double. If he was tossed over board, we’ll never know for sure.

I have no problem with the way the body was buried. I do have a problem with just about everything the WH has done since Sunday night’s news conference, but I’m OK with giving OBL something that resembles a decent burial. Not to calm down muzzie fanatics – f them – but to show the world that we’re still civilized and the rage boys are not. Now, release the photos… :-)

joejm65 on May 5, 2011 at 6:07 PM

Exactly – I feel exactly the same about the IRA terrorists who killed so many innocent civilians here in the UK with their bombs. Many victims of these murderers were taken to isolated places then just buried in a convenient hole without even a prayer.
Quite content when the SAS took them out but then allowing them a funeral…shows we were better than them – and also that once a person is dead they face judgement from a higher authority..

I think it would’ve been appropriate, after washing his body, to hand Sharpies to the Seal team to draw penises and write smart-assed remarks all over it before chumming the Arabian Sea . . . then break out the salt water tackle and a cooler full of beer.

Personally, I would have sawed the head off and stuck it on a pike. Would have made a video of it, and sent it to Al-Jazeera showing two can play that game. I still wonder about the “rush,rush” to get rid of the evidence and why there were five different versions of how it went down. More amateurism from the Empty Suit Gang……

We’ll never know for sure now exactly how Osama bin Laden died. The body, the most important evidence, is has been destroyed.

What remains are conflicting official stories, which seem calculated to demean the dead enemy: Osama bin Laden used his youngest wife as a human hostage, he was cowardly, he retreated and so on. These stories have no more credibility than the Joker gloating about cops proving cowards in their last moments of life.